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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page discussion of the catapult. This paper describes the design of the catapult and how changing different aspects of that design can change its efficiency. Bibliography lists sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPcatapultAngle.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
weapons of war. They were used to launch projectiles at enemy targets. Those projectiles could be anything from large rocks to spears to the dead and sometimes diseased
bodies of humans, horses, and other animals (Corff, Grunstein, and Passalaqua, 2006). The catapult had to render tremendous force not just because of the weight of the object it
was hurling but because it had to reach the other end with enough force to accomplish its purpose. Sometimes that purpose was to take down ground troops and sometimes
it was to send the projectile into a castle wall and to ultimately penetrate that wall (Corff, Grunstein, and Passalaqua, 2006). Catapults are used in more high tech applications
even today and, once again, in most cases they must employ tremendous force. Military aircraft, for example, are sometimes launched from the decks of the ships that carry them
through a high tech catapult. Whether we are considering catapults of medieval times or catapults of today, they work in accordance with the basic principles of physics.
As has been emphasized, even the medieval catapults were tremendously powerful. Corff, Grunstein, and Passalaqua (2006) report that a large trebuchet (a type of
catapult): "was capable of throwing a 300 pound projectile over 300 yards"
The catapult is essentially a counterweighted lever that is attached to a fulcrum at variable places along its
length and equipped with a place where the projectile can rest until it is hurled through the air (Siana, 2001). The efficiency (i.e. how heavy of a projectile that
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